San Francisco Opera

Saturdays at 12:00 pm

Hear live operas recorded at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

The second largest opera company in North America, San Francisco Opera (SFO) has been a leader among international opera companies for over nine decades. Since its inception, SFO has embodied a spirit of innovation by presenting the world premieres of many works including A Streetcar Named Desire (1998), Dead Man Walking (2000), and Doctor Atomic (2005), and the American debuts of numerous artists including Anna Netrebko, Tito Gobbi, Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Renata Tebaldi, Valery Gergiev, and Sir Georg Solti. The radio series brings these world-class performances from current seasons, as well as historic performances, to the airwaves.

WFMT offers a complete opera every Saturday at noon with productions from the following companies:

Cunning, clever, and big-hearted, Figaro is precisely the sort of person you want as a friend. His quick thinking proves invaluable in helping a young woman escape from the grasp of her guardian and into the arms of a noble suitor.

South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee (in his San Francisco Opera debut) stars as the titular Chénier, a poet whose romance with a noblewoman is threatened by the violent French Revolution. The opera was composed by Umberto Giordano with a libretto by Luigi Illica.

This week’s broadcast features a recording of a 1979 performance of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, based on Victor Hugo’s French play Angelo, Tyrant of Padua. The star-studded cast includes soprano Renata Scotto in the title role and Luciano Pavarotti as Enzo Grimaldo along with Stefania Toczyska (Laura), Margarita Lilova (La Cieva), Norman Mittlemann (Barnaba), Feruccio Furlanetto (Alvise), John Del Carlo (Zuane), ...

recent podcasts

dennis's morning quiz

It’s a traditional Christmas carol with a text in both German and Latin, and it dates back to the 14th century. Over time, various musical arrangements and melodies have been created for the text by several composers, including J. S. Bach. The title in English is “In Sweet Rejoicing”. What’s the Latin title of this popular carol?